I regularly check several dozens blogs. Some for fashion, home design, other for sales leads and most for inside industry information. I was reading the Apartment Therapy Los Angeles blog and their post about saving an old piece of furniture that held memories. No matter what, some readers would never part with them. Isn’t this normal?

O M Gosh! My entire home is refurbished family memories. Sure there are pieces I have inherited that I had to get rid of. But anyone with an eye for design, sense of quality or history keeps furniture. Am I not in the norm?

Perhaps those who haven’t inherited great pieces can’t appreciate how cool it is. I have an 1840’s French Victorian side table that belonged to my great Uncle Louis’s grandparents. They brought it over from France. His daughter, my Aunt Madeline left my mom a 1940’s dresser. It was painted an antique green. Mom stripped it and later she gave it to me. When I was a little girl, our neighbor had this amazing giant king wing chair. She gave it to my mom. I grew up with it in our living room. Mom then later gave it to me. My daughter got this totally cool 1960’s French etegere from my mom. I was with her the day she bought it and how happy she was with her bargain find. It is now painted in bright colors for a kids room, but is an outstanding piece and can be refinished at any time to bring it back to it’s original glory. My Mother in Law gave Kevin several mid century pieces along with her moms Stickley rocker and her moms formal dining set.

We are surrounded by family pieces, embraced in family history through furniture. Each one beautiful, each one packed full of memories. Though we have tweeked them a bit to fit in with other pieces, none of them could be parted with. It would be like losing a member of the family.

Not only do I cherish the memories and history of each piece, re-using old furniture has saved me a lot of money and is very “green”. Plus most are better quality then anything on the market today. Free, great quality… it’s an easy choice. If I am not in the norm… so be it. I’d rather be the odd man out.